Upload
others
View
0
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
9
Nenad Markovikj*
Ivan Damjanovski
Zoran Ilievski
LINKAGE BETWEEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, ACTIVE
CITIZENSHIP AND DEMOCRATIC INNOVATION: AN OVERVIEW
FOR A NEW RESEARCH AGENDA
I. Introduction……………………………………....9
II. Social movements and the concept of active
citizenship – defining the terms………………....10
III. Social movements and democratization …......15
IV. The revival of social movements in southeast
Europe……………………………………………16
V. Theoretical approaches to democratic
innovation ……………….……........................17
VI.Methodological considerations…..…....20
VII. Empirical findings…...............….…....22
VIII. Conclusion: is there a linkage?..........23
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the defining qualities of democracy ever since its appearance until its contemporary
state has been participation. In this regard “citizen participation is usually considered a
valuable element of democratic citizenship and democratic decision making” (Michels, 2011,
276) being that the positive effect of participation on the quality of democracy is taken almost
axiomatically in democratic theory. Participatory democracy is one of the operative terms in
the modern debate on the outreach and the limits of participation, be it in the more
cooperative manner of dialogue between the state and civil society actors, or the more
conflictual modalities of political participation characteristic for social movements.
Speaking of the contemporary state of democracy worldwide, it seems that it is exactly its
participatory aspect that is undergoing a fundamental crisis on a global scale. The crisis of
participatory democracy is reflected in two ways: as a fundamental attitudinal disillusionment
in democracy as a political order; and as a troublesome behavioral relation between the
citizens and institutions that should both represent them and be a locus for their political
participation. This crisis can be diagnosed via “decline in electoral turnout, low levels of trust
in politicians and political institutions and decline in membership of traditional mobilizing
organizations such as political parties and trade unions” i.e. a “growing disconnection
between citizens and decision-makers - the difference and distance between the subjectivity,
motives and intentions of citizens and those who make decisions in their name” (see in Smith
2009, 4-5). One of the critiques of democracy, introduced in the theoretical discourse by
radical democrats, lies exactly in its representative aspect that can often suffocate its
participatory potential. In other words, radical democrats claim that representative democracy
* Nenad Markovikj, PhD, Associate Professor, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Iustinianus Primus
Law Faculty
Ivan Damjanovski, PhD, Associate Professor, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Iustinianus
Primus Law Faculty
Zoran Ilievski, PhD, Professor, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Iustinianus Primus Law
Faculty
10
has a fundamental flaw in its design because it “alienates political will at the cost of genuine
self-government, impairs the community’s ability to function as a regulating instrument of
justice, and precludes the evolution of a participating public in which the idea of justice
might take root” (Barber 1984, 145-46).
Another important point of origin of the dissatisfaction with the participatory aspect of
democracy is the lack of innovation in the different modalities of participation in democratic
processes. The traditional forms of participation seem as insufficient in satisfying the
growing complexity of the democratic processes. As Dalton (2004, 204) points out “stronger
parties, fairer elections, more representative electoral systems will improve the democratic
process, but these reforms do not address expectations that the democratic process will
expand to provide new opportunities for citizen input and control.” This means that it is
crucial to engage in examining the possibilities in democratic innovation in political theory
and practice, trying to establish a connection between the possibilities and limits of
representative democracy, and social movements as possible carriers of the process of
democratic innovation. The possible new arenas and modes of engagement, pioneered by
social movements can be a partial answer to the crisis of participatory democracy, or at least
a considerable part of it.
The paper engages in examining the connection between social movements, active
citizenship and democratic innovation. Although there is an obvious commonality between
the subjects, its neglect in the academic literature comes as a big surprise. In this sense, the
paper aims at instigating a discussion on the linkages between social movements, active
citizenship and democratic innovation by raising a number of questions which could be
directional for future research endeavors. Primarily, the paper defines the terms social
movements and active citizenship in order to establish the categorial apparatus it operates
with. The following part of the paper briefly analyzes social movements as democratizing
agents as well as the reasons for reemergence of social movements in Southeast Europe. In
the last part the paper analyzes the concept of democratic innovation, its definition,
theoretical and methodological approaches as well as empirical findings in the area.
II. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE CONCEPT OF ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
– DEFINING THE TERMS
The renewed interest in social movements after the Second World War triggered a growing
literature, and with it, a plethora of definitions and academic approaches trying to define what
social movements are, but also delineate between social movements and similar categories
such as participatory democracy, active citizenship, protests, societal scenes, opportunity
structures etc. Identified as a key element of civil society, academic interest on social
movements intensified when “new social movements theory started to appear in the late
1960s and 1970s to explain new waves of political activism – student protests, feminism,
peace and environmentalism” (Purdue 2007, 6). The increased attention to social movements
globally, but also in the Western Balkans in the last three decades, requires that, on the one
hand one needs to define the term, and on the other hand the term needs precise locating in
the academic debate, which seems as a sensible starting point when discussing social
movements and their current role in democratic innovations in the Western Balkans.
To this end, academic literature on social movements defines the term as “informal networks,
linking individual and organizational actors engaged in conflictual relations to other actors,
on the basis of a shared collective identity” (Della Porta and Diani 2006, 30). This starting
definition focuses on informality, solidarity, conflict and protest as fundamental defining
categories, without saying much on the ultimate points of solidarity, conflict and protest as
categories on which social movements are based on. Blumer (1969, 99; in Crossley 2002, 3)
11
partly answers the questions of the end point of social movements by defining them as
“collective enterprises seeking to establish a new order of life (…) derive their motive power
on one hand from dissatisfaction with the current form of life (…) from wishes and hopes for
a new system of living” where “the career of a social movement depicts the emergence of a
new order of life”. Aiming to create new realities and change social dynamics is central to
defining social movements but blurs the line between social movements and other social
structures that cooperate with the government on political and social issues via modalities
offered by participatory and deliberative democracy.
The conflictual dimension of social movements apropos an established social order to which
social movements relate and conflict with, does not limit them to only challenging the state
apparatus and practices. In this sense, “social movements do not limit themselves to
presenting demands to decision makers; they also more or less explicitly express a
fundamental critique of conventional politics, thus shifting their endeavors from politics itself
to meta-politics” (Offe 1985; in Della Porta 2009, 1). Additionally, as Reiter (2009, 44)
specifies “social movements express a fundamental critique of conventional politics,
affirming the legitimacy (if not the primacy) of alternatives to representative models of
democracy.” Such an approach to social movements identifies their broader social role as
agents of change and challenging of not just current social order, but representative
democracy as such. In between lines, defining social movements as carriers of social
alternatives, stresses the need for innovation and creation in the social domain, meaning that
the ultimate end of social movement is not mere protest or challenging the state or
representative democracy only, but also social invention and innovation in the political
domain, usually occupied by state actors.
No matter the number of definitions taken in account, social movements need to be differed
from other modalities/actors of the political arena and distinguished from other civil society
actors, with which social movements often get confused with. The first line of division on
social movements is their difference from other political actors in the political arena.
Academic literature points out to the modalities of action that social movements rely on as
the main difference between political actors and social movements. Della Porta and Diani
(2006, 28) argue that:
“Until the early 1970s debates on social movements emphasized their
noninstitutionalized nature (…) Even now, the idea is still very popular that
social movements may be distinguished from other political actors because of
their adoption of “unusual” patterns of political behavior. Several scholars
maintain that the fundamental distinction between movements and other social
and political actors is to be found in the contrast between conventional styles
of political participation (such as voting or lobbying political representatives)
and public protest…”
The dichotomy conventional/unconventional styles of political participation, once again,
directs the debate towards the conflicting capacity of social movements within a framework
of action tools that often are not accessible to political actors, or, to say the least, are less
frequently chosen as a first option in politics (protests or rallies for example). However, it is
the opposite approach that really distinguishes social movements from political actors (as
well as other civil society actors). The question is not the limits of action of political actors
but also the limits of social movements, that usually do not engage into lobbying activities or
policy change through negotiations with the state. Lobbying or negotiating are political
instruments that lack direct friction and conflict in their essence and are mostly utilized by
other civil society actors such as pressure groups, lobbies, interest groups or advocacy think-
12
tanks. In this sense “social movements do challenge the power of the state (…) relying
mainly on protest as a means to put pressure upon decision makers, they challenge the power
of the state to impose its monopoly on the use of legitimate force” (Della Porta 2013, 152).
While lobbyists, think-tanks or interest groups negotiate or pressure the state through non-
conflictual or less conflictual modalities, social movements rely on protest and direct clash
with its repressive apparatus.
Another important characteristic of social movements is the level of adaptation to social
circumstances and optimization of resources when opportunities for social action occur.
Although different individuals and spontaneous groups might use similar modes of action to
social movements, this is still not a sufficient qualifier to define them as social movements.
As Meyer (2002, 13) points out “movements are bound neither by narrow issues nor by
particular tactics” and “although some individuals or groups habitually use the same years to
pursue their goals, for example, firebombing, demonstrations, boycotts, or electioneering,
most choose strategies they think most likely to be effective, given their perceptions of
resources, opportunities, and constraints, including organizational limits and self-imposed
moral commitments”. This also speaks to internal traits of social movements which relate to
at least minimal organizational structure (unlike ad-hoc movements) and internal moral code
which is always centered around common grievances and dissatisfactions (Laclau, 2005),
which delineates between social movements and massive outbursts of popular dissatisfaction,
which could originate from different sources and are not by necessity centered around a
single topic or even related issues.
Social movements are civil society actors. But, as it was already mentioned, they are a
specific type of civil society actors that usually engage into activities that include some level
of resentment towards the state. Individuals or other organized actors of civil society also
participate in resolving public issues, but their participation is fundamentally different from
that of social movements. Font and associates (2014, 1) point to this important distinction:
“The first characteristic that differentiates this kind of participation from that
related to social movements or voluntary associations of various types is
precisely the central role played by a government in organizing or providing
legitimacy to these processes. This characteristic is important because it
provides a direct link between participation and governmental decision-
making processes.”
Participatory democracy, in this sense, is a concept more often associated with civil society
actors that interact with the state in a more cooperative manner, through cooptation and
cooperation rather than through friction and protest, modalities reserved for social
movements. Social movements engage into a bottom-up pressure, but so do other actors,
although not with the same intensity, purpose or approaches. In case of policy processes the
state vouches for the credibility of the policy process in an effort to coopt civil society actors
giving legitimacy to specific policy change. In case of social movements, legitimacy is
exactly what is being challenged in the process of organized action usually through
modalities far more drastic compared to other civil society actors.
One of the concepts that commonly follows the concept of social movements in the concept
of active citizenship. This concept has changed its meaning over time and includes a number
of qualities that supersede both the classical meaning of the term “citizenship” as well as the
minimal conception of activism, equal to forms of general social engagement in matters of
public interest. In this regard the origins of the term go back to the 1980s, with its original
meaning being the exact opposite of the term it later evolved into. In this regard, as Kearns
(1995, 157) explains, the term was coined in the eighties in the times of Thatcherian neo-
13
liberal governing, designating an anti-collectivistic and individualistic concept of transfer of
responsibility for welfare from the state to the citizens “whose compulsion to get active is to
derive from their personal morality and the prospect of the approbation of others, rather than
from feelings of community belonging and communal endeavor.” Defined in this manner, the
concept of active citizenship was originally a product of the political times of the 1980s
oriented towards individualism, quest for freedom (again individual rather than collective) as
well as an effort of limiting the welfare state by relying on individual moral reform, followed
by the pursuit for personal economic progress and neglect for community and society as a
collective organism. Active citizenship was coined to be the exact opposite of what it means
at present.
As the debate on active citizenship developed, and the concept of the welfare state regained
political ground, active citizenship was no longer related to its original meaning. Defining the
term can be derived from a more practical, activist aspect, and from a more philosophical
aspect, both intersecting at certain common values (justice, inclusion, activeness etc.).
Practical, activist oriented literature approaches active citizenship more from the perspective
of an acquired skill of the democratic citizen, seen as a prerequisite for participatory and
deliberative democracy. In this sense active citizenship is both an equilibrium between rights
and responsibilities of the democratic citizen as well as a “form of literacy (…) acquiring
knowledge and understanding so as to make informed judgements and having the skill and
courage to respond in the appropriate way, individually or collectively” (European Economic
and Social Committee 2012, 7). Additionally, it is a concept that cannot be limited to
participating in institutions of the system i.e. it is “more than participating in representative
democratic structures (…) or involvement in formal volunteering (…) active citizenship also
means involvement in participative democracy, namely that people are involved in
developing policies that directly affect them” (Irish Traveler Movement 2006, 3). This
concept of active citizenship is furthermore “underpinned by a set of fundamental values that
includes respect for the rule of law, democracy, justice, tolerance and open-mindedness, and
regard for the rights and freedoms of others” (European Economic and Social Committee
2012, 7). The concept of active citizenship outgrows the formal engagement of citizens in
democratic institutions and places their proactiveness in shaping the policy field based on
acquired information and knowledge followed by a constantly present readiness to engage in
matters related to the common good of society. This definition, however, lacks the element of
friction between social movements and the state, and directs the debate towards other civil
society actors prone to cooptation and cooperation. Thus, the concept of active citizenship
needs a broader elaboration, so one could effectively see the connection between active
citizenship and social movements.
Larsen (2001, 81) goes a step further giving active citizenship the quality of a redistributive
mechanism of social welfare. This understanding relates active citizenship to “the relocating
of obligations and responsibilities to the community level” followed by a refreshed
communitarian approach (as in contrast to the increasing individualization of society) as well
as “co-operation and a division of labor between private, public and volunteer actors and
organizations regarding the production and delivery of welfare services”. In this case, active
citizenship is defined in terms that directly defy its original meaning, which is however
insufficient to establish a direct relation between social movements and active citizenship,
unless social redistribution is being achieved through means that surpass dialogue and
cooperation between civil society actors and the state.
One of the most prominent authors in the field of active citizenship, Engin F. Isin, approaches
the problematics of active citizenship from a broader, philosophical perspective. His
definition of the concept of active citizenship distances the term from its formal aspects of
citizenship as a legal status or a relation between the state and the individual. In this sense
14
Isin and Nielsen (2008, 2) stress that “what is important about citizenship is not only that it is
a legal status but that it involves practices – social, political, cultural and symbolic (…)
formal citizenship is differentiated from substantive citizenship and the latter is seen as the
condition of the possibility of the former.” The accent here is not merely on the individual’s
formal belonging to a community defined by an act of legal regulation, but more to a
proactive and activist community of citizens, which by no means limit themselves in their
“repertoires of contention” (Haunns 2007, 157).
Moreover, Isin (2009, 381-382) proposes, in essence, three prerequisites when researching
acts of citizenship meaning the following:
1. the first principle of investigating acts of citizenship is to interpret them through their
grounds and consequences, which includes subjects becoming activist citizens
through scenes created1;
2. The second principle of theorizing acts of citizenship recognizes that acts produce
actors that become answerable to justice against injustice;
3. The third principle of theorizing acts is to recognize that acts of citizenship do not
need to be founded in law or enacted in the name of the law.
These three fundamental principles of active citizenship proposed by Isin2, completely
change the understanding of the term in a direction that has far more social outreach and
expands the possibilities for social action in times when injustice cannot be resolved through
legal means, or there is no political will for such a resolution. Legal regulation in many
societal spheres is either insufficient or even biased in favor of specific social groups, thus
the need for broader social action is implied as a necessity. This specifically means that
“active citizenship is about being willing to contribute to social action as well as to political
debate, to be willing to get involved” (Scheithauer 2016, 19) which speaks on behalf of an
ideological and proactive carrier of such social action and involvement. This is the link
between active citizenship and social movements whereas it is exactly the role of social
movements to promote and strive at efforts resulting in social change, based on their
understanding of what is just and what is not, very often devoid of legal limits. Social
movements, being organized and having a common internal denominator in the face of
specific social challenges, are the fundamental modus operandi in the efforts for achieving
change in times when societies might experience idiosyncratic democratic deficits or plain
authoritarianism. In such cases, social movements can be a powerful democratizing agent, a
possibility often neglected on account of political elites.
1 Here Isin (2009, 381) even proposes to replace the term ‘active citizens’ with ‘activist citizens’ whereas
“activist citizens engage in writing scripts and creating the scene, active citizens follow scripts and participate in
scenes that are already created. While activist citizens are creative, active citizens are not.” 2 Glover proposes three dimensions of active citizenship (see in Scheithauer 2016, 19): “ethical citizenship,
integrative citizenship, and educative citizenship. Ethical citizenship understands active participation in a
collective strive towards the public good as an essential feature of citizenship. The personal sacrifices that are
made aid some public benefit and are hence ultimately also enjoyed by the person who sacrifices. Integrative
citizenship needs engagement in a wide sphere of participation that can go beyond formal political practices and
institutions. The concept involves the belief that every individual plays an assortment of roles, and that this form
of citizenship enables the individual to integrate their various roles, and to immerse themselves into the
community, hence causing them to have a greater appreciation of the collective. In addition, this stance holds
that one needs an understanding of the personal interests of members of the wider community as well if they are
to truly act as members of the public, and hence, the democratic activity that is associated with citizenship aids
such an understanding as well. However, educative citizenship (Dagger, 1997) refers to the process that
develops a moral, practical, and intellectual sense of self in individuals when they practice their citizenship.”
15
III. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND DEMOCRATIZATION
Both strands of literature focusing on democratization and social movements have been
surprisingly neglecting the link between activism of societal actors and democratic change.
Most of the seminal literature on democratization has emphasized the role of elites in the
processes of democratic transition (O’Donnel and Schmitter 1986, Przeworski 1991), paying
little attention on the role of popular organizations (Bermeo 1997). In a similar vein, the
literature on social movements for a long time has been predominantly tied to inquiries
within the realm of the well-established democratic regimes in Western Europe and North
America (Rossi and della Porta 2009). However, the processes of post-communist transition
that emerged at the end of the 20th
century have triggered a growing academic interest on the
role of civil society actors and social movements in toppling authoritarian regimes and
assisting the processes of democratic consolidation. Societal push for change is considered to
be of major importance for a successful democratic transition, as “both civil society
organizations and social movement organizations possess agency that is important for
advancing democracy in a country”, the former providing a channel for participation and
monitoring of policies and the latter being crucial for confronting authoritarian rule
(Noutcheva 2016, 695). In this sense, Linz and Stepan (1996) have pinpointed civil society as
one of the five arenas that are necessary for successful democratic transition and
consolidation. The emerging global civil society has also been advocated as a powerful
democratizing agent (Kaldor 2003, Keane 2003, Kaldor et al. 2012). On the other hand, it has
been argued that the mobilizing force of social movements has played an important role in
the outcomes of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Arab spring
revolutions in 2011(della Porta 2014a). Similar examples can be traced in the postcommunist
contexts of the Western Balkans and the former Soviet space, from the Serbian revolution in
2000, through the various ‘color revolutions’ such as the 2003 ‘rose revolution’ in Georgia,
the 2005 ‘orange revolution’ in Ukraine, the 2005 ‘tulip revolution’ in Kyrgistan, up to the
2014 ‘Euromaidan’ revolution in the Ukraine and the ‘colorful revolution’ in Macedonia in
2016. In this sense, the social movements literature has also emphasized the cross-national
aspects of diffusion of pro-democracy societal mobilization and spillovers of protest
experiences across countries (Steward 2009, della Porta and Mattoni 2014)
Tilly provides an important argument on the correlation between social movements and
democratization. His historical account of social movements detects a strong correspondence
between democratization and social movements which is based on three causal factors: first,
“the same processes that cause democratization also independently promote social
movements”, second, “democratization as such further encourages people to form social
movements” and “third, under some conditions and in a more limited way social movements
themselves promote democratization” (Tilly 2004, 131). Therefore, social movements
provide agency for democratization when they are able to broaden and equalize the range of
participants in public politics, limit the proliferation of categorical inequalities into public
politics and provide integration of previously divided networks into public politics (Tilly
2004, 143). Similarly, Rossi and della Porta (2009, 182) observe six enabling factors for
democratization: a non-syndical strike wave and/or a pro-democracy cycle of protest,
increased political organization in urban areas, an actively engaged church (in Catholic
countries), external pressure from human rights networks, division among the authoritarian
elites on whether to continue to sustain the non-democratic regime and existence of pro-
democratic elites that can absorb the demands for democracy coming from below.
However, there are important limitations to the effectiveness of these bottom-up approaches
to democratization. Politicization and inconsistency of civil society actors and social
movements, limited capacities for representation, accountability deficits as well as profound
16
mismatches between grass root and elite conceptions of the role of civil society in the
political system have
been pinpointed as significant barriers to the effectiveness of popular agency in democratic
change (della Porta 2014a, 2014b). In this sense, while pro-democracy mobilization has been
able to influence authoritarian elite change, in many cases of post-communist transition, the
long-term democratization effects have been underwhelmed by stagnation or even regression
of the processes of regime transformation. It is precisely this oscillating quality of democracy
that brought about the revival of social movements in Southeast Europe.
IV. THE REVIVAL OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE
The debate on social movements in the last decade has been enriched with voluminous
contributions from Southeast Europe, both in practice and theory. The political and social
conditions in the countries of the Western Balkans, and more specifically in former
Yugoslavia, have given birth to a plethora of social movements that seem to mushroom in the
volatile political ambient of the countries in the region. Some of the reasons for the
appearance and the expansion of social movements are more obvious and stem from deeply
enrooted democratic deficits of the societies in the region, while other social movements
address more particular and specific grievances of individual societies.
The constant backsliding of democratic standards in the region (Nations in Transit, 2018;
Wunsch, 2016) as well as the constant threat of state capture in almost all countries in former
Yugoslavia (see Dzankic 2018, Bieber 2018, Pesic 2007) seem to be the fundamental
provocation for the appearance of social movements. However, it is almost a rule that social
movements in the region do not instantly expose themselves as massive nor they instantly
become an umbrella under which different unsatisfied groups unite against a common
adversary, predominantly in the face of local authoritarian regimes. On the contrary, most of
the social movements find their origin in very particular issues and gradually “snowball” to
massiveness as popular dissatisfaction grows.
The initial moment for organized social actions and initial appearance of social movements
can vary. In some cases, such as Serbia, Croatia or Macedonia the motivating agent can be
commodification of public spaces (‘Ne davimo Beograd’ in Belgrade, ‘Pravo na grad’ in
Zagreb or ‘Prva Arhibrigada’ in Skopje) where the protest is aimed at specific state/city
projects of arranging urban parts of the city (predominantly city centers) in a manner that is
highly inappropriate aesthetically, economically or even in terms of a symbolic or historical
content (Vangeli, 2011). Dolenec and associates (2017) designate this abrupt transformation
of urban parts of the city as “neoliberal urbanism” indicating that the struggle for the city
overpasses the framework of the urban locus in which social conflict occurs while “it
encapsulates larger processes of economic and political change” (ibid, 1). Such a manner of
commodification can have exclusively economic origins but can also aim at “hegemonic
representations” (Muhic and Takovski, 2014) of national myths and historic content, and has
a deeply divisive political potential. Nevertheless, in all mentioned cases, popular
dissatisfaction occurs as commodification attempts intensify whereas social movements
answer in a manner of “anti-instrumentalism” (Matkovic and Ivkovic 2018, 2) meaning
opposing neo-liberal logic of urbanization through commodification of public spaces. These
movements later reveal themselves as the embryo of the equivalential chains of unfulfilled
demands (Laclau 2005, 74) which later form new chains just to grow to full scale anti-
authoritarian revolutions such as the ‘Colorful revolution’ in Macedonia or the ‘One in five
million’ movement in Serbia.
17
In other cases, societal grievances have a completely different origin. Failed (or better failing)
states in the region frequently fail to satisfy sometimes even the basic needs of their citizens
which creates dissatisfaction that can be a combination of social disenfranchisement followed
by constant ethnic capture, as in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Mujkic (2016)
argues, ethno-nationalist elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina in both 2013 and 2014 were not
just forced to combat social dissatisfaction with problems such as social identification
numbers or corrupt privatization but were also forced to regain their position of ethnic
entrepreneurs challenging their class position as well as “the rarely questioned ethno-
nationalist ideological hegemony” (ibid, 1) they constantly benefit from. The protests in
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013 (problems with social identification numbers) and 2014
(false privatization of companies in Tuzla resulting in firing workers), as well as the newest
set of protest in Banja Luka directed against the unresolved murder of David Dragicevic
(‘Justice for David’) seriously endanger the deeply rooted positions of ethnic elites in
Bosnian society and cause cross-cutting solidarity, on the border of a global social but also
anti-ethnic revolution, still successfully kept under control by ethnic entrepreneurs on all
three sides.
In a similar fashion, but devoid of any ethnic burden, the protests in Slovenia in 2012-2013
had an exclusively social component having “an anti-establishment orientation, with the
movements made up of diverse groups of individuals, indignant that the political and
economic elites have been unable to provide decent living standards following the 2008
financial crisis” (Toplisek and Thomassen 2017, 1384). These protests resemble the
movement of the Indignados in Spain and the anti-austerity movement in Greece addressing
exclusively social dissatisfaction but causing visible ruptures in the political tissue of the
specific states where such movements appeared.
Regardless of the reasons for their revival in the region, social movements use a more or less
predictable set of instruments in their actions. Protests, blockades, public mock events, live
performances or even throwing paint at state institutions are a number of methods that repeat,
more or less throughout the region. The questions arise: can social movements innovate? Is
democratic innovation compatible with social movements? What does the concept mean in its
essence? What modalities of democratic innovation have proven successful? Can democratic
innovation be reconciled with the concept of social movements?
V. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO DEMOCRATIC INNOVATION
In contrast to the elitist theories of democracy (Schumpeter 1976) that have dominated the
academic debate in the second half of the 20th
century, theories of participatory democracy
(Pateman 1970) that have started to develop since the 1970s have stressed the importance of
wider citizen participation in modern democracies. These theories on participatory and
deliberative democracy, including ones on social capital, claim that participation gives
citizens a more direct ‘say’, giving individuals and minorities a voice, it encourages civic
skills and civic virtues, leads to rational decisions based on public reasoning, increasing
support for the process and the outcomes (Michels 2011, 276). They advocate an inclusive
approach that seeks mechanisms that will provide platforms of representation of diverse and
often marginalised groups (Young 1990, 2000). Authors have even argued for empowerment
of the excluded groups to challenge the existing institutions (Blaug 2002, 107)
Citizen participation can take many different forms that often go beyond the mainstream
institutional setups that are common in democratic polities. Following the emergence of a
plethora of divergent and creative participative mechanisms around the world, the literature
on democracy has coined the term ‘democratic innovations’ which denote “institutions that
18
have been specifically designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political
decision-making process“, which engage with citizens directly and are formaly
institutionalised at a local, national or transnational level (Smith 2009, 1).
Citizen involvement outside the electoral process may take various forms depending on
whether citizens are approached as individuals and asked for opinions or votes, or
collectively as a group. Combining these two criteria, four types of democratic innovation
can be distinguished: referendums, participatory policy making, deliberative surveys, and
deliberative forums (Michels 2011, 279-280).
Similar types of participation are often described with different concepts. For example, what
is considered participatory policymaking can also be referred to as interactive policymaking
or governance, citizen governance, or citizen participation in decision making. Deliberative
surveys are also referred to as deliberative polls. Deliberative forums can include citizens'
juries, citizens' conferences and dialogues, consensus conferences, and planning cells.
Comparative research has shown that referendums and participatory policymaking have more
impact on decisions compared to deliberative surveys and forums (Michels 2011, 281). The
former provides instant results and engages more people, while the latter arises the share of
opinions and exchange of arguments but takes longer and includes fewer people. The
argument of ‘participatory democrats’ that participation gives citizens a say in decision-
making appears to be accurate in the case of referendums and participatory policymaking.
Likewise, the emphasis on public reasoning by ‘deliberative democrats’ applies more
frequently on deliberative surveys and forums (Michels 2011, 290).
Constitutional deliberative democracy is a term very often referred to all cases which have
the aim to involve the general public in the deliberation. It is based on inclusiveness as a
principle that should motivate the presence and the voice of marginalised social groups,
helping to create a mechanism for their effective recognition and representation. In addition,
Fung and Wright (2001) introduced the concept of Empowered Deliberative Democracy
which favours democratic experiments of participation based on “(1) a focus on specific,
tangible problems, (2) involvement of ordinary people affected by these problems and
officials close to them, and (3) the deliberative development of solutions to these problems”
(Fung and Wright 2001, 17). According to the authors, such types of deliberative democracy
enhance the practice of practical orientation, bottom-up participation and deliberative
solution generation.
The actual involvement of citizens, how they transform public service, and how they are
themselves transformed by the service is another aspect that affects democratic innovations.
Such involvement of citizens allows the public sector to deliver services differently, at the
same time, incorporating them into the institutionalised system of provision. This also calls
attention to differences between co-production, co-management and co-governance regarding
citizen participation (Pestoff and Brandsen 2008, 496).
Bovaird defines the process of co-production (also see Whitaker 1980; Percy 1984; Alford
1998; Needham 2006, 2008) as a "provision of services through regular, long-term
relationships between professionalised service providers and service users or other members
of the community, where all parties make substantial resource contributions" (Bovaird 2007,
5). This is also highlighted by Pestoff, who emphasises the essence of reciprocity between the
service and the citizen (Pestoff and Brandsen 2008). The process of co-production, in
Bovaird's words, not only involves the connection between a provider and a set of users, but
it specifically appears when this relationship is supported by community activists and
professional staff (Bovaird 2007, 5). Bovairds uses as an example the Participatory
Budgeting (PB) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, project widely used in the literature as a model of
engaging citizens in the policy-making process. For Alford, clients, volunteers and citizens
are the three main actors who participate in this co-production process together with
19
government organisations. The relationship of each one of these actors with the public
institutions differs. Thus, Alford considers an "exchange" of the link between the client and
the government organization, though a deeper one than just changing money for a received
service: it is an exchange that calls "for new capacities and skills on the part of public
organizations and their staff, but it also holds out the promise of better government" (Alford
2002, 51). To develop his arguments, Alford explores the academic legacy of Elinor Ostrom
(see Ostrom et al. 1978), Parks et al. 1981, Ostrom 1996), who developed the concept of co-
production at the end of the 1970s. Her work, in Alford's words, "offered a new way of
understanding the roles of citizens and clients in the political economy, which bridged the gap
between the market and the state" (Alford 2014, 313).
Exploring further into the concept of co-production, Bovaird identifies the main benefits and
limitations of the process. In his opinion, one of the main pillars of the co-production process
is the relationship developed by both parties, professionals and users, where the two of them
inevitably take risks and are somehow forced to trust each other. Another benefit is the role
played by leaders of community groups, who often mediate between public organisations and
individual co-producers, using this position to amplify the views of the latter. On the other
hand, however, Bovaird considers that the relationship created among these actors could
reduce public accountability by "blurring boundaries between the roles of public, private and
voluntary sectors." (Bovaird 2007, 17).
Another extensively explored concept in the literature is that of deliberation in the decision-
making process. For authors like Bobbio, deliberation changes depending on the several entry
positions of the participants in the process. He highlights different features "depending on
whether the dialogue comes about among insiders (experts, politicians, bureaucrats,
stakeholders, representatives of interest groups) or among lay citizens" (Bobbio 2010, 3). He
concludes that although politicians, militants, and activists are not so willing to be helped, the
support for the decision-making process is "absolutely necessary". The author recognises that
"not all deliberative processes are equally capable of guiding participants towards a
constructive and not manipulated dialogue" and that the best configuration "is that in which
participants have a good understanding of the issue but are willing to suspend their judgment"
(Bobbio 2010, 7). He summarises his arguments by underlining the inevitability of
negotiation and co-operation processes between citizens and administrations.
The phenomenon of the 'minipublics' (small groups of citizens carefully chosen according to
different criteria to represent several viewpoints in order to deliberate on a given topic) serves
Reuchamps and Suiter to explore the changes in deliberative democracy that have made
countries such as Iceland and Ireland reform their constitutions towards a more deliberative
democracy. The authors take many other empirical cases to draw a broader tendency of a
“constitutional turn” in deliberative democracy in Europe. The scholars agree on several
features shared among all the deliberative democracy experiments conducted in Europe:
"they are based on some form of deliberation among samples of citizens; they aim to foster
positive and constructive thinking about solutions (they are not simply protesting
movements); they seek genuine debate about policy content; they seek solutions beyond
adversarial politics, and they seek to identify common ground" (Reuchamps and Suiter 2016,
2).
Some other authors like Michels and De Graaf insist specifically on the role of citizens in
participatory processes. The authors defend the idea of integrating the citizens in the process
at an early stage to increase the support and legitimacy of the policies. Michels and De Graaf
take as an example one of the instruments of citizen participation in the Dutch town of
Eindhoven: the digipanel, "a citizens’ panel on the internet, which allows a permanent group
of citizens to be regularly consulted on different policy issues" (Michels and De Graaf, 481-
482).
20
Admitting the pressures that public administrations face from a more demanding public,
Bradwell and Marr take a look over the tensions created among the different actors of the
new trends in the policy-making process (administrations and citizens, mostly): "between
top-down strategy and bottom-up aspirations; between the demands of large-scale services
and smaller, localised solutions; and between the new ideas and problems posed by users and
the legacy of traditional service delivery" (Bradwell and Marr 2008, 45). By conducting a
survey, both scholars come to the conclusion that we should go beyond "the language and
constraints" of the process but also recognising the variation by sectors and territories of the
deliberative processes (Bradwell and Marr 2008, 45).
VI. METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Two issues relating to the design of stakeholder dialogue need elaboration, as they are critical
for the methodological implications of constructive conflict. The first issue concerns learning
as the aim of stakeholder dialogue; the second issue concerns procedures for stakeholder
selection that are congruent with the nature of sustainability issues (Cuppen 2011, 25).
Stakeholder dialogue aims to learn through constructive conflict about the properties of the
concept of "diversity", in order to identify it. "Variety" refers to the number of categories into
which the elements can be divided. "Balance" refers to how the elements are distributed
among the categories. "Disparity" refers to the degree and nature to which the categories
themselves are different from each other." (Cuppen 2011, 28). As an example, the "Biomass
Dialogue" aimed to develop ideas about sustainable biomass chains for the Netherlands and
to identify what is needed in order to realise these chains (Cuppen 2012, 33). As Cuppen
(2012, 40) puts it: "elaborating on constructive conflict as a central design issue for
stakeholder dialogue on wicked problems, we observe a need for (both theoretical and
empirical) research on methods to support the design of stakeholder dialogue. Especially
stakeholder selection procedures that are based on the empirical identification of diversity of
perspectives require more attention.
Although the importance of the first phases of a dialogue (identification of perspectives and
stakeholder selection) are vital, that hardly touches upon the phase of synthesis of a dialogue.
Sometimes it is relevant (or tempting) to evaluate the quality of dialogue by its outcomes
(such as the usefulness of results, the agreement on courses of action and the uptake in actual
policymaking). However, significant errors can ensue from a strong focus on outcomes as it
may mean neglect of input to the dialogue. The ‘wicked’ character of the problems under
consideration and the subsequent aim of problem structuring legitimate a strong focus on
input to the dialogue, i.e. bottom-up identification of perspectives and stakeholder selection.
Obviously, as a next step, synthesis is an integral part of a dialogue that needs attention as
well. Further empirical research can shed light on how synthesis can be attained in a dialogue
where diversity is at the core (Cuppen 2012, 41).
The intense focus on the outcome might neglect input or vice versa, leading to the question
does it take „two to tango“? (Osborne and Strokosch 2013). Understanding the principles of
co-production of public services can be done by integrating the services management and
public administration perspectives. Co-production of public services is the opposite of
producing an actual good that is the final product of a process. Production and consumption
in such a case are two separate processes, but when it comes to the production of public
service both occur at the same time. Democratic innovations are influenced by co-production
based on the input and output game. It is not the provision of a standardised and pre-
packaged product, but rather a value-based interaction. In reality, such elements are more of a
continuum than a steady state. Services such as residential care and education are instances
21
where the co-production is high, because consumption and production take place both at the
same point in time and in the same place, with direct face-to-face contact (Osborne and
Strokosch 2013, 11).
Implementation of democratic innovations is highly determined by an actual understanding of
the process of introducing new habits. The main intentions of co-production are user
empowerment and participation. Both are long-time goals of public services, though with
only limited achievement. User empowerment is challenged by the abilities of individuals to
influence the outcome of public service experience. As such, it is best approached through the
mode of consumer co-production (Osborne and Strokosch 2013, 38). Participation by users,
on the other hand, is concerned with the role of the service user in taking part in the public
service planning process, so that the public service system can address their needs more
effectively in the future.
Participants in the execution or delivery of public service are as important as the policy-
making that leads to solutions. How can deliberative mini-publics as innovation affect
policies on controversial issues?
Structured deliberation ‘takes place in ad hoc mini-publics involving lay citizens in structured
discussions on a particular public decision, with the support of professional facilitators who
design the processes and lead the discussions’ (Ravazzi and Pomatto 2014, 1). The Genoa
mini-public arena is one of the examples where the first meetings were open to all the
residents, and the participants in the planning workshops were recruited through the
“outreach” method. Indeed, the arena had its flaws, but it produced three key mechanisms:
1) giving space for expression to committees and associations, it favoured the
legitimation of the process by activists usually hostile to the deliberative approach;
2) using the outreach method to include citizens during the process, it favoured the
access of innovative ideas and the emergence of useful "bridge-proposals" to redefine
the stakes and to stimulate the formulation of constructive solutions;
3) making the potential for citizen mobilisation visible to the institutional authorities, it
highlighted the costs (concerning the loss of consensus) of the missed consideration
of the citizens' recommendations (Ravazzi and Pomatto 2014, 10).
To reduce the possibility of conflicts when sharing unpopular opinions with unknown people
the need for facilitators when designing the deliberative mini public is crucial. However,
when the issues are highly controversial, as in the case of land use policies, the pressures of
the deliberative setting can collide with common cognitive dynamics. “When a conflict is
developing, the actors tend to accentuate the common mechanism of categorisation,
attributing negative prejudices, such as incompetence or opportunism to the people with
opposed opinions“(Ravazzi and Pomatto 2014, 13).
Since these types of mini-publics do not usually have the formal power to make the final
decisions of the political authorities binding, understanding how they could improve their
capacity to influence policy decisions becomes a crucial matter. The empirical studies that
have so far addressed this issue have shown that some factors are relevant in specific cases of
participatory and deliberative processes: the existence of an active civil society interested in
the topic, a clear commitment by the institutional authorities who are responsible for the final
decisions, and a proper timing of the mini-public, when several options are still available in
the decisional process (Ravazzi and Pomatto 2014, 16).
22
VII. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
The Belgian experience with a citizens' summit involving a large number of people inspired
many groups of citizens and politicians in the Netherlands to organise a similar type of event.
Although the designs of the G1000s differ, they do share a number of features common to all
mini-publics. Mini-publics are, first and foremost, characterised by the realisation of
structured deliberation, enabled by independent facilitation (Reuchamps and Suiter 2016, 1-
2). They are designed with the aim of being deliberative, which means that the focus is on
following the ideal deliberative procedures; opinion formation and the exchange of
arguments are more critical than decision-making. A second key element is the participation
of a broadly inclusive and representative subgroup of an affected population. Except for the
G1000 in Uden, sortition was used as the selection mechanism to obtain a diverse body of
participants.
Such experiences cannot be easily transferred elsewhere, as democratic innovations are
context-based. With its complicated, and, arguably, not entirely completed democratic
transition, as well as its strategic commitment to European Union (EU) accession, Serbia is
an illustrative case, representative of similar (post-communist, non-EU) countries where
democratic innovations are seen as another means to increase participation of the citizens and
bring the democracy closer to EU standards (Damjanovic 2018, 2). As an example, building
on a case in Serbia, the theoretical conceptualisation of the role of ICTs in democratic
innovations was further hindered by at least three other factors. Firstly, the relations between
ICTs and democracy are studied in different disciplines with almost no overlap (Damjanovic
2018, 3). The second is the burden of technological determinism, which dominated the first
studies in the field, and has led to distinctly techno-optimistic and techno-pessimistic
evaluations of the potential impact of ICTs on democracy. High expectations in the
exploration of the concept have only recently been replaced by more temperate observations
based on empirical studies. Finally, given the diversity of ways ICTs can be used to enhance
democratic practices, it is difficult to identify the features that are common enough to
constitute a discrete category of democratic innovations (Damjanovic 2018, 3).
Based on empirical results derived from different experiments, Alarcon and Font come up
with different general conclusions on the deliberative and participative decision-making
processes in Southern Europe. In this region, the authors argue, the bottom-up promotion of
these institutional practices is not typical since public institutions have directed most of these
processes: "participatory experiences do not start from below: they are mostly commissioned
by public authorities that maintain significant control over their development and that, in
many cases, carry out these experiences by themselves, mostly using workers from the
administrations" (Alarcón and Font 2014, 21). They also draw interesting conclusions
regarding the sign of the political forces behind these processes, concluding that "the left is
generating participatory mechanisms in municipalities where there is no prior
institutionalisation to a greater degree than the right, which has tended more to maintain
already existing instruments" (Alarcón and Font 2014, 10). The scholars underline the
weakness of civil society in the region, which brings, however, a more powerful strength of
participatory over the deliberative tradition.
Brownhill also draws some thoughts on participation models based on his case study: Cowley
Road Matters (CRM), a plan in the Oxfordshire County Council for the renovations of roads
which included in the process of deliberation a local organisation to consult the residents and
a team of national consultants to design the road. The project shows that the initiative brings
the results of "the uneasy coexistence of different modes of governance", highlighting the
"tensions between the construction of categories of the public and the mobilisation around the
23
complexity of diversity within society" (Brownill 2009, 373). Brownhill concludes that
although participatory planning "remains elusive, a focus on the dynamics of governance can
contribute to opening up the possibilities for participation while being aware of the
limitations" (Brownill 2009, 373).
Font and Blanco have researched the citizen juries in Spain, which consist "of a randomly
selected group of people who decide on a given public policy after an exhaustive informative
process" (Font and Blanco 2007, 561). After carrying out several interviews, both authors
realised that most of the organisers and participants were satisfied with the results of the
juries, but also recognised that had created excessively high expectations about them. Font
also highlights the need for promoting new mechanisms like this in order to create political
trust, but remarks that in order to do it, "these mechanisms need first to gain a wide degree of
public acceptance and eliminate some of the problems that still generate reluctance" (Font
and Blanco 2007, 584). The authors underline the exceptional nature of these mechanisms,
which are "an isolated experience in a context with very limited opportunities for
participation" (Font and Blanco 2007, 585). However, despite all these mechanisms found
and analysed in many countries around the globe, we are still far from generalising these
deliberative and participating processes in the EU. According to the 2013 Eurobarometer
(Eurobarometer 2013) on the degree of engagement of the European citizens in participatory
democracy, just an 18% of respondents had taken part in a public debate at a local or regional
level, a figure which dropped to 4% and 1% in the cases of a national or EU level,
respectively. On the other hand, nevertheless, some 34% of the respondents signed online
petitions and 28% shared their concerns on public issues on social media (Eurobarometer
2013, 27).
Generally speaking, research has pointed towards several factors that can limit the success of
democratic innovations. Most of the barriers are related to the design of the instruments for
deliberation. In many cases there are structural problems with the representation of citizens,
as most forums of citizen participation tend to be overrepresented by people that are wealthy,
well-educated and already civically and politically engaged (Michels and de Graaf 2017). In
this sense, criticism has been raised on weather citizens have the competence and skills for
political judgements (Smith 2009) in addition to resource deficits that often severely limit the
range and the quality of the respective democratic innovations (Smith 2005). Finally, external
factors by definition play a crucial role, as in many cases the variation in the effectiveness of
democratic innovations has been dependent on political commitment by state public
authorities (Bierle and Konisky 2000; Abers 2000; Baiocchi 2005).
VIII. CONCLUSION: IS THERE A LINKAGE?
Both social movements and democratic innovations in modern societies emerge as a reaction
to the deficits of representative democracy to provide a wider platform for inclusion of
diversity of interests and values of common people. However, both phenomena at the same
time operate on two divergent paths. While the modus operandi of social movements has
been the accumulation and expression of protest energy in regard to failing institutional
designs of democracy, innovative democratic practices seek (quasi) institutional mechanisms
to fill the gap in democratic participation by promoting democratization from below. This
tension has also been evident in scholarly research where the two disciplines have been
reluctant to engage in interdisciplinary endeavours. The lack of interaction is a reflection of a
wider separation in the literature on social movements and civil society in general (della
Porta 2014b) which emphasizes the contrast between a social movement research agenda that
emphasizes the role of conflict, grassroot contention and extra-institutional deliberation; and
24
a civil society research agenda which favours a more structured, moderated and peaceful
platform for democratic participation based on co-optation and cooperation.
However, empirical examples demonstrate that innovative democratic practices can be
utilized by social movements as a platform for realization of their policy demands. The much
discussed case of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre is often used as a reference point
(della Porta 2013, 182) for a democratic innovation that has been able to establish
participatory bodies which are “both effect and cause of a wider political mobilization that
enabled groups to participate who had not participated before, and, importantly, those bodies
have much wider powers than the more policy-specific bodies considered in the US cases’
(Cohen and Rogers 2003, 251). In this sense, more emphasis should be put on notions of
complementarity between the functions of social movements and democratic innovations.
While social movements serve as platforms for raising the voices against exclusion of
divergent and discontent societal groups from the political processes, innovative democratic
practices can serve as bottom-up platforms for channelling those voices into the policy
making institutional arenas.
In sum, the analysis of the literature presented in this paper raises several questions of interest
for a wider research agenda of the linkage between social movements and democratic
innovation: are there connecting points between social movements, active citizenship and
democratic innovation? How can democratic innovation contribute to participatory
democracy? Are social movements compatible with the concept of democratic innovation?
Upcoming comparative research should aim to provide comprehensive answers to some of
these questions.
References:
1. Abers, Rebecca. N. 2000. Inventing Local Democracy: Grassroots Politics in Brazil.
London: Lynne Rienner.
2. Alarcón, Pau and Joan Font. 2014. "Where Are the Boundaries of Deliberation and
Participation? A Transatlantic Debate." Journal of Public Deliberation 10, issue 2: 1-
27.
3. Alford, John. 1998. “A Public Management Road Less Travelled: Clients as Co-
Producers of Public Services.” Australian Journal of Public Administration, 57, no. 4:
128–137.
4. Alford, John. 2002. "Why Do Public-Sector Clients Coproduce? Toward a
contingency theory." Administration & Society 34. no.1: 32-56.
5. Alford, John. 2014. "The Multiple Facets of Co-Production: Building on the Work of
Elinor Ostrom." Public Management Review 16, no.3: 299-316.
6. Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. 2005. Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory
Democracy in Porto Alegre. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
7. Barber, Benjamin. 1984. Strong Democracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
8. Beichelt, Tim, and Wolfgang Merkel. 2014. “Democracy Promotion and Civil
Society: Regime Types, Transitions Modes and Effects”. In Civil Society and
Democracy Promotion, edited by Tim Beichelt, Irene Hahn-Fuhr, Frank
Schimmelfennig, and Susann Worschech, 42-64. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
9. Beierle, Thomas C., and Konisky, David M. 2000. “Values, Conflict, and Trust in
Participatory Environmental Planning”. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,
19, no.4: 587-602.
10. Bermeo, Nancy. 1997. “Myths of Moderation: Confrontation and Conflict during
Democratic Transitions.” Comparative Politics 29, no. 3: 305-322.
11. Bieber, Florian. 2018. “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism in the Western
Balkans.” East European Politics 34, no. 3: 337-54.
25
12. Blaug, Ricardo. 2002. “Engineering Democracy”. Political Studies 50, no.1: 102–116.
13. Bobbio, Luigi. 2010. "Types of Deliberation." Journal of Public Deliberation 6,
no.2:1-24.
14. Bovaird, Tony. 2007. "Beyond engagement and participation: User and community
coproduction of public services." Public administration review 67, no.5: 846-60.
15. Bradwell, Peter, and Sarah Marr. 2008. "Making the Most of Collaboration. An
international Survey of Public Service Co-Design." Report 23, London: Demos.
Accessed January 31, 2019. https://www.demos.co.uk/files/CollabWeb.pdf. 16. Brownill, Sue. 2009. "The Dynamics of Participation: Modes of Governance and
Increasing Participation in Planning." Urban Policy and Research 27, no.4: 357-375.
17. Cohen, Joshua., and Rogers, Joel. 2003. “Power and Reason.” In Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance, edited by Archon Fung., and Erik, Wright. 237-258. London and New York: Verso.
18. Crossley, Nick. 2002. Making Sense of Social Movements. Buckingham and
Philadelphia: Open University Press.
19. Cuppen, Eefje. 2012. "Diversity and Constructive Conflict in Stakeholder Dialogue:
Considerations for Design and Methods." Policy Sciences 45, issue 1: 23-46.
20. Dalton, Russell J. 2004. Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of
21. Damjanovic, Ivana. 2018. "Democratic Innovations in Serbia, a Misplaced Trust in
Technology." Contemporary Politics 25, issue 1; 111-27.
22. della Porta, Donatella and Mario Diani. 2006. Social Movements: an Introduction.
Malden Oxford and Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.
23. della Porta, Donatella, and Mattoni, Alice, eds. 2014. Spreading Protest: Social
Movements in Times of Crisis. Colchester: ECPR Press.
24. della Porta, Donatella. 2009. “Organizational Structures and Visions of Democracy in
the Global Justice Movement” In Democracy in Social Movements, edited by
Donatella della Porta, 16-43. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
25. della Porta, Donatella. 2013. Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, Deliberation
and Social Movements. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
26. della Porta, Donatella. 2014a. Mobilizing for Democracy: Comparing 1989 and 2011.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
27. della Porta, Donatella. 2014b. “Democratization from Below: Civil Society versus
Social Movements?” In Civil Society and Democracy Promotion, edited by Tim
Beichelt, Irene Hahn-Fuhr, Frank Schimmelfennig, and Susann Worschech, 137-149.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
28. Dolenec, Danijela, Karin Doolan and Tomislav Tomasevic. 2017. “Contesting
Neoliberal Urbanism on the European Semi-periphery: The Right to the City
Movement in Croatia.” Europe Asia Studies 69, no.9: 1401-429.
29. Dzankić, Jelena. 2018. “Capturing Contested States: Structural Mechanisms of Power
Reproduction in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.” Southeastern
Europe 42, issue 1: 83-106.
30. Eurobarometer. 2013. “Europeans’ Engagement in Participatory Democracy.” Survey
conducted by TNS Political & Social at the request of the European Commission,
Flash Eurobarometer 373. Accessed January 31, 2019.
http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/flash/fl_373_en.pdf.
31. European Economic and Social Committee. 2012. Active Citizenship: for a Better
European Society. Brussels: European Union.
https://www.eesc.europa.eu/resources/docs/eesc-2011-35-en.pdf.
26
32. Font, Joan, and Ismael Blanco. 2007. "Procedural Legitimacy and Political Trust: The
Case of Citizens Juries in Spain." European Journal of Political Research 46, issue 4:
577-589.
33. Font, Joan, Donatella della Porta and Yves Sintomer. “Introduction.” In Participatory
Democracy in Southern Europe: Causes, Characteristics and Consequences. Edited
by Joan Font, Donatella della Porta and Yves Sintomer, 1-20. London and New York:
Rowman and Littlefield.
34. Fung, Archon, and Wright, Eril. O. 2001. “Deepening Democracy: Innovations in
Empowered Participatory Governance.” Politics & Society, 29, no.1: 5–41.
35. Gherghina, Sergiu, Joakim Ekman, and Olena Podolian. 2018. "Democratic
Innovations in Central and Eastern Europe: Expanding the Research Agenda."
Contemporary Politics 25, issue 1: 1-10.
36. Goldstein, Piotr. 2017. "Post-Yugoslav Everyday Activism(s): A Different Form of
Activist Citizenship?" Europe-Asia Studies 69, issue 9: 1455-472.
37. Haunss, Sebastian. 2007. “Challenging Legitimacy: Repertoires of Contention,
Political Claims-Making, and Collective Action Frames.” In Legitimacy in an Age
of Global Politics, edited by Achim Hurrelmann, Steffen Schneider and Jens
Steffek, 156-72. Palgrave Macmillan, London
38. Irish Traveler Movement. 2006. Irish Traveler Movement Submission to the Active
Citizenship Taskforce. ITM. https://itmtrav.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ITM-
Submission-to-the-Taskforce-on-Active-Citizenship.pdf.
39. Isin, Engin F. 2009. “Citizenship in Flux: the Figure of the Activist Citizen.”
Subjectivity 29: 367-88.
40. Isin, Engin F. and Greg M. Nielsen. 2009. Acts of Citizenship. London and New
York: Zed Books.
41. Kaldor, Mary, Moore, Henrietta. L., and Selchow, Sabine, eds. 2012. Global Civil
Society 2012. Ten Years of Critical Reflection. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
42. Kaldor, Mary. 2003. Global Civil Society: an Answer to War. Cambridge: Polity
Press.
43. Keane, John. 2003. Global Civil Society? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
44. Kearns, Ade. 1995. “Active Citizenship and Local Governance: Political and
Geographical Dimensions.” Political Geography 14, no.2: 155-75.
45. Laclau, Ernesto. 2005. On populist reason. London and New York: Verso.
46. Larsen, Jørgen Elm. 2001. “The Active Society and Activation Policy.”
ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242074750_The_active_society_and_activa
tion_policy/download.
47. Linz, Juan, and Stepan, Alfred. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
48. Matkovic, Aleksandar and Marjan Ivkovic. 2018. “Neoliberal Instrumentalism and
the Fight Against it: the “We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own” Movement.” East
European Politics 34, no.1: 27-38.
49. McNulty, Stephanie. 2012. "An Unlikely Success: Peru’s Top-Down Participatory
Budgeting Experience." Journal of Public Deliberation 8, no.2: 1-19.
50. Meyer, David S. 2002. “Opportunities and Identities: Bridge Building in thr Study of
Social Movements.” In Social Movements: Identity, Culture and the State, edited by
David S. Meyer, Nancy Whittier and Belinda Robnett, 3-24. New York: Oxford
University Press.
27
51. Michels, Ank and De Graaf, Laurens. 2017. “Examining Citizen Participation: Local
Participatory Policymaking and Democracy Revisited.” Local Government Studies,
43, no. 6: 875-881.
52. Michels, Ank, and Laurens De Graaf. 2010. "Examining Citizen Participation: Local
Participatory Policy-Making and Democracy." Local Government Studies 36, no.4:
477-91.
53. Michels, Ank. 2011. “Innovations in Democratic Governance: how does Citizen
Participation Contribute to a Better Democracy?”, International Review of
Administrative Sciences 77, no.2: 275–293.
54. Muhic, Maja and Aleksandar Takovski. 2014. “Redefining National Identity in
Macedonia: Analyzing Competing Origin Myths and Interpretations through
Hegemonic Representation.” Etnoloska Tribina 37, vol.44: 138-52.
55. Mujkić, Asim. 2016. “In Search of a Democratic Counter-Power in Bosnia–
Herzegovina.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 15, issue 4: 623-638.
56. Nations in Transit. 2018. “Confronting Illiberalism.” Accessed January 31, 2019.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/nations-transit-2018.
57. Needham, Catherine. 2006. “Coproduction in Public Services: Opportunity or
Threat?” Renewal, 14, no. 2: 55–60.
58. Needham, Catherine. 2008. “Realising the Potential of Coproduction: Negotiating
Improvements in Public Services.” Social Policy and Society, 7, no.2: 221-231.
59. Noutcheva, Gergana. 2016. "Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting
the EU’s Impact on Democratization." Journal of common market studies 54, no.3:
691-708.
60. Noutcheva, Gergana. 2016. “Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting
the EU’s Impact on Democratization.” Journal of Common Market Studies 54, no. 3:
691–708.
61. O’Donnell, Guillermo, and Schmitter, Philippe C. 1986. Transitions from
Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
62. Osborne, Stephen, P. and Kirsty Strokosch,. 2013. “It Takes Two to Tango?
Understanding the Co-Production of Public Services by Integrating the Services
Management and Public Administration Perspectives.” British Journal of
Management 24: S31-S47.
63. Ostrom, Elinor. 1996. "Crossing the Great Divide: Coproduction, Synergy, and
Development." World Development 24, no.6: 1073–87.
64. Ostrom, Elinor. 1996. “Crossing the Great Divide: Coproduction, Synergy, and
Development.” World Development, 24, no. 6: 1073–1087.
65. Ostrom, Elinor., Parks, Roger. B., Whitaker, Gordon. P., and Percy, Stephen. L. 1978.
“The Public Service Production Process: A Framework for Analyzing Police
Services.” Policy Studies Journal, 7, no. 1: 381–389.
66. Parks, Roger. B., Baker, Paula. C., Kiser Larry., Oakerson, Ronald., Ostrom, Elinor.,
Ostrom, Vincent., Percy, Stephen. L., Vandivort, Martha. B., Whitaker, Gordon. P.,
and Wison, Rick. 1981. “Consumers as Co-producers of Public Services: Some
Economic and Institutional Considerations.” Policy Studies Journal, 9, no.7: 1001–
1011.
67. Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
68. Pesic, Vesna. 2007. “State Capture and Widespread Corruption in Serbia.” Centre for
European Policy Studies (CEPS), Working Document no.262, Accessed November
24, 2018. http://aei.pitt.edu/11664/1/1478.pdf.
28
69. Pestoff, Victor, and Taco Brandsen. 2008. "Co-Production. The Third Sector and the
Delivery of Public Services.” Public Management Review 8, no.4: 493-501.
70. Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
71. Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
72. Purdue, Derrick. 2007. “Introduction: dimensions of civil society.” In Civil Societies
and Social Movements: Potentials and Problems, edited by Derrick Purdue, 1-17.
New York: Routledge.
73. Ravazzi Stefania, and Gianfranco Pomatto. 2014. "Flexibility, Argumentation and
Confrontation. How Deliberative Minipublics Can Affect Policies on Controversial
Issues." Journal of Public Deliberation 10, issue 2: 1-23.
74. Reiter, Herbert. 2009. “Participatory Traditions within the Global Justice Movement.”
In Democracy in Social Movements, edited by Donatella della Porta, 44-72. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
75. Reuchamps, Min, and Jane Suiter. 2016. "Constitutional Deliberative Democracy in
Europe." ECPR Press. Accessed January 31, 2019.
http://press.ecpr.eu/documents/sampleChapters/9781785521454.pdf.
76. Rossi, Federico M., and Della Porta, Donatella. 2009 “Social Movements, Trade
Unions and Advocacy Networks.” In Democratization, edited by Christian Haerpfer,
Patrick Bernhagen, Ronald F. Inglehart, and Christian Welzel, 172-186. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
77. Scheithauer, Helena. 2016. “Issue of Active Citizenship in a Modern Democracy: the
Case of Austria.” MSc diss. University of Vienna.
78. Schumpeter, Joseph 1976. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: Allen and
Unwin.
79. Smith, Graham. 2009. Democratic Innovations; Designing institutions for citizen
participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
80. Smith, Graham. 2009. Democratic innovations: Designing institutions for citizen
participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
81. Stewart, Susan. 2009. “Democracy Promotion Before and After the ‘Colour
Revolutions’.” Democratization 16, no. 4: 645–60.
82. Tilly, Charles. 2004. Social Movements 1768-2004. Boulder and London: Paradigm
Publishers.
83. Topli ek, Alen and Lasse Thomassen. 2017. “From Protest to Party: Horizontality and
Verticality on the Slovenian Left.” Europe-Asia Studies 69, vol.9: 1383-1400.
84. Vangeli, Anastas. 2011. “Nation Building Macedonian Style: the Origins and the
Effects of the so-called Antiquization in Macedonia.” Nationalities Papers 39, no.1:
13-32.
85. Whitaker, Gordon. 1980. “Co-production: Citizen Participation in Service Delivery.”
Public Administration Review, 40, no. 3: 240–246.
86. Wunsch, Natascha. 2016. “Stability vs. Democracy? The Dilemma of Illiberal
Tendencies in the Enlargement Region.” European Western Balkans. Accessed
January 31, 2019. https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2016/11/23/stability-vs-
democracy-the-dilemma-of-illiberal-tendencies-in-the-enlargement-region/.
87. Young, Marion I. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
88. Young, Marion I. 2000. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000.